


Make Room for Me

by sweettasteofbitter



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Growing Old Together, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22333504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweettasteofbitter/pseuds/sweettasteofbitter
Summary: The first time Roe invites Josephine to her room, her infatuation is brand new. The last time Roe invites Josephine to her room, it’s a goodbye.There is a first time for everything, and a last.
Relationships: Josephine Montilyet/Female Trevelyan
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	Make Room for Me

The first time Roe invites Josephine to her room, her infatuation is brand new, and her hands are shaking with the need to hold Josephine close. Of course Josephine is as observant as ever, so she takes Roe’s restless hands in her own. Roe can’t offer anything but her own smile in return.

“I like it when you smile,” Josephine says.

“You do?” Roe mumbles. She’s lost in a haze because all she wants to do is to be kissing Josephine, and she laments every second that isn’t spent doing precisely that.

“Hmhm,” Josephine hums. She presses a brief kiss to Roe’s mouth, not nearly long enough. “It’s the tooth gap. It’s very charming.” Josephine brings her hand to Roe’s cheek, and Roe can feel her thumb against the edge of her scar. “Plus, your smile is a sign of your happiness, which happens to be paramount to me.”

Josephine’s words trickle down Roe’s spine one by one, and Roe realizes that no one this close to her has ever told her that her happiness matters to them. 

Trust falls around her like a blanket. This is what she has been missing all these years: someone she can trust unconditionally, who makes her feel as though they could do anything as long as they have each other’s back. She wants Josephine steadily by her side for as long as they live. 

She figures out, right there and then, that this is what being in love must feel like.

Roe stares at Josephine until she can’t take her heated cheeks anymore. She pulls Josephine against her and presses her mouth to hers. Josephine’s arms are secured around her neck, making sure they stay close together, and Roe is happy to notice Josephine kisses back feverishly herself.

They continue until they’re heady with it, and when Roe leans back for air, she is actually a little dizzy. She sways and quickly puts her mouth against Josephine’s cheek, her jaw, her neck.

“I’m not suggesting you take off all of your clothes right now,” Roe speaks roughly while her hands toy with Josephine’s leather belt, “but I definitely want to see more of you.” She leans back, realizing that she doesn’t _have_ to do this, and neither does Josephine. “Shit, I don’t even know how much you’re comfortable with, or at all, or-”

Josephine’s fingers cover Roe’s.

“Underthings stay on,” Josephine says resolutely, and starts undoing the fastenings on her belt.

Roe stares while Josephine strips out of her armor of silk and velvet. Practiced fingers undo buttons and knots and laces, and Roe is rooted to the floor, mesmerized, until Josephine stands before her in her chemise.

There is a night sky worth of freckles on Josephine’s shoulders. Roe bites her lip at the sight.

“You are so lovely,” she says, blood pounding in her ears as she reaches out and draws meandering rivers down Josephine’s newly revealed skin.

Roe detects a faint trace of muscles in Josephine’s incredibly soft arms, and wonders if Josephine could _literally_ sweep her off her feet. She grins; perhaps that is an experiment best left for another day.

“Are you going to make me wait?” Josephine flashes a smile. “Or are you shy all of a sudden?”

“What? No, of course not.” Roe’s hands move to her own collar. “I’m merely a little distracted right now.”

Roe takes off her vest and tunic. She never bothers with a breast band, so she is left to the whims of the cold air in her sleeveless undershirt. She wonders what Josephine would think if she saw the piercings underneath the thin fabric.

“Oh, look at you,” Josephine says softly, surveying the ample decoration on Roe’s arms. Tantalizingly slowly, she slides her hands up flowers, birds, and other wonders of nature. Roe’s limbs tingle under her touch.

“I knew you had these, but I didn’t realize they went all the way up to your shoulders.” Josephine lays her hand to rest just below the hollow between Roe’s clavicles. She looks up at Roe through her eyelashes. “I don’t think you quite know how attractive you are to me.”

“Thanks, I try,” Roe says, desperately trying to ignore just how much that confession made her heart rate speed up. There is no way that Josephine can’t feel her heart thumping against her ribs.

“Hmm, no, brushing it off will not do,” Josephine says, and bends forward to kiss Roe’s shoulder. Poor Roe is rendered perfectly helpless against her.

Josephine tugs at the hem of Roe’s undershirt with one hand, lifting it. Her deft fingers glide over Roe’s back and Roe shrieks, curling her spine away from those cold fingertips. 

Josephine simply laughs.

\------

The last time Roe invites Josephine to her room, it’s a goodbye, and she hasn’t been called “Roe” in many years. Josephine is one of the few people who still use that name for her. To others, she is Rosa. To one person who could not be here today and who will be notified of the loss later, she is mother.

Roe will die in bed, then, and not by slipping off a rooftop, as Josephine had so often warned her when they were younger, and Roe never listened because she believed she knew everything better.

“We both knew this day would come.” Josephine rises from her chair, slowly, her back not what it used to be. She sinks down on the mattress. It is just the two of them, as it has been many times before.

“Promise me one thing.” Roe smiles, her lips dry. Talking is hard, now, taking away the last reserves of her energy. “If I come back to haunt you, send me back to the fade where I belong. I have some old friends there.”

“I promise,” Josephine says dejectedly.

“What fun we had,” Roe says, trying to lighten the mood and failing. 

“That, we did.” Josephine’s bottom lip trembles. She swallows back her tears and carefully lays her head down on Roe’s chest.

Moments pass. Then, Roe hears Josephine’s sob.

“ _No_ ,” Roe whispers. She never could stand seeing Josephine cry. She wishes she had the strength in her arm left to lift it and stroke Josephine’s hair, which has gone from grey to white alarmingly fast over the past few months.

They remain like this for a few more minutes, with Josephine quietly sobbing, and Roe trying her best to savor this last moment, to stay awake.

“You have fought hard enough, my love,” Josephine says in between tears. “Go to sleep.”

And so Roe does.


End file.
